Nunavut gov't files appeal over illegal caribou hunt

The government of Nunavut is appealing a judge's decision to stay charges against a man who killed a caribou during a Baffin Island hunting ban.

But Michael Irngaut's lawyer says the territorial government is in no position to get involved. 

Irngaut, of Igloolik, was 22 years old when he shot a caribou in February of 2015. He was on patrol as a Canadian Ranger. 

Irngaut said his ranger leader received a call from an elder who was on the board of the community hunters and trappers organization. The elder, who is also the patrol leader's father, said it was OK to hunt caribou even though there was a ban. 

Irngaut was later charged with unlawful harvesting under the territorial wildlife act. 

'Officially induced error'

Last March, Nunavut Justice Neil Sharkey stayed those charges on grounds called "officially induced error." 

Sharkey said it was reasonable for a young ranger to believe his patrol sergeant and the elder board member. 

But the government of Nunavut filed an appeal of that court decision shortly after. 

The government says the judge was wrong to consider the elder board member as an official, or as an appropriate authority on a Nunavut law. 

"HTO (hunter and trapper organization) membership does not make a person an 'official,' nor does it denote any particular expertise," Adrienne Silk, the government of Nunavut's legal director, wrote in the August appeal. 

The elder's information on caribou hunting was "unsolicited" and "relayed without context," the appeal says. 

The government says Irngaut didn't do his due diligence to make sure the hunting ban had been lifted, and that he shouldn't have relied on second-hand information from his patrol sergeant. 

"It was not reasonable for [the elder] to assert that there was 'no actual rule stating that they could not' hunt caribou, when it was common knowledge that there was a caribou hunting ban in place," Silk wrote. 

Nunavut gov't has no standing, says defence 

Irngaut's lawyer, however, says the Nunavut government is unable to make that appeal.

"The government of Nunavut has no standing to appeal this matter and this court has no jurisdiction to hear the appeal," Benson Cowan wrote in a \n Oct. 29 motion to dismiss the appeal.  

He meant that because all territorial offences are issued by federal prosecutors, the Nunavut government is not involved in this case and therefore can't appeal the decision.

"The Public Prosecution Service of Canada is the only entity with the authority to conduct and appeal a prosecution on behalf of the Crown in Nunavut," he said. 

On Nov. 15, Cowan filed another argument on Irngaut's behalf that said a board member of a hunters and trappers group is called a "trustee, officer and member of an executive committee" under the Nunavut Agreement and the territorial wildlife act.  

The matter will be heard in by the Nunavut Court of Appeal on Feb. 11.